Beautiful Cabinets by Ron Standring

Dan and Ron finished installing the cabinets in record time, and they look beautiful! I keep walking downstairs just to look at them. The pantry is the real coup de gras, with drawers that pull out all the way. After putting everything away, there was still so much space that I brought in all the kitchen stuff from the garage.

Dan had fun installing the new microwave and stove (especially cutting a hole in the side of the house to install the vent for them!). Our first meal cooked on the new stove (I write this sheepishly) was fried egg sandwiches. They sure tasted good, though!

Here are the cabinets Ron built for us a while ago that face the new cabinets. Frank, our frog, enjoys the undercabinet lights nearly as much as we do!


Now our big dilemma is what material to use for a countertop. We're currently thinking of a solid surface like Silestone or granite, in a brown/tan color to contrast with the cream walls and maple cabinets. Here are two of our ideas. Which do you like better?

Kitchen Renovation

When we first visited our house - even before we put in a bid - Dan's amazing dad was designing new kitchen cabinets for us! A while ago, he built and installed a section of cabinets to add some storage to an empty wall in our kitchen. Beautiful!

In the past months, he has been busy at work again! Dan got to play the Incredible Hulk as he demolished our little pantry and old cabinets to make room for Ron's latest creation. My mom found a home in her garage for some of the cabinets, and the rest went to a charitable organization along with the old stove (THRILLED to be rid of that sticky, black mess!). The kitchen was quite a mess for a while, and it felt like we were moving when the dishes and pantry food were in boxes were all over our downstairs!

Dan helped his dad install the new maple pantry and cabinets along the western wall of our kitchen. Here is Dan preparing to attach the drawer guides for the pantry. Dan's dad installed them, creating a place for all the pantry items and many more things besides!

Pumpkin Train & Tucson Trip

On the weekend of Halloween, Dan and I went to visit my grandparents and Dan's family in Tucson, AZ. We stayed with my grandparents for a night, and viewed both the intriguing rock formations on Mount Lemmon and the nighttime Tucson skyline from A Mountain. Dan's oldest brother celebrated his 50th birthday with a bash at a Mexican restaurant. We chatted with the Standrings at the posh resort where we all had rooms, and then drove 13 hours with David, Diane, and the nephews to get home.

In October, we went on a neat old train ride with David, Diane, their boys, and Diane's family. We departed from Woodland on a crisp fall morning, and enjoyed hot drinks and cookies from plush chairs. We had the 6- or 7 passenger car train nearly to ourselves, and so we spent most of the ride running from the open-air car behind the engine to the windy caboose. Sharing the train ride with Ian, who LOVES trains, made the trip even more fun!

The engineer never took us much faster than 5 mph, so it wasn't too windy to really enjoy the countryside and rice fields. Mid-trip, they let us off to browse through a huge pumpkin patch and pick out our own pumpkin. Dan chose a pumpkin as big as my grin after I went through the haystack maze!